Fathers and Futures
by Calm-Waters
Summary: It's terrible, really. Ralph always had this thought in the back of his mind- how he was empty. How he didn't have anything in the past to remember, to smile over. However, the gang did. They had fathers, while he didn't. But they all shared something together, and that was a future. One-shot. Post-Movie.


**_Well, hello again! Yet another drabble- one-shot thing that I have for you for your enjoyment! However, as you no doubt tell, this is NOT focusing on Ralph and Felix, yet more as Ralph, Vanellope and Felix- Mostly Ralph, because, yes, we all love that bumbling oaf ^^ He's quite the character, and has quite the story to tell- or maybe, reading this, not much of a story, really._**

**_But more of a future to write. ^^ Anyway, happy reading! Hopefully you all review! It's very nice to hear all your wonderful voices!_**

**_~!~!~!~!_**

Wreck-it Ralph:

Fathers and Futures.

It was yet another pleasant closing day at the arcade. Mr. Litwack had finally gone home for the night, and all the games were positively buzzing with the need to escape- be free of their games and go rushing to Game Central Station and just relax.

Wreck-it Ralph had other plans. He was going to another game- now now, not to game jump- but because he was invited. Actually, the whole gang- as in Felix, Sergeant Calhoun and himself- were invited to Vanellope's "parliament building" for tea- of all things. Yet Ralph wasn't one to deny the little girl any requests, and he certainly liked the company.

So, with Felix, (the Nicelander's pouting in the penthouse because Vanellope strickly denied their presence. She was still unyeilding and unforgiving of their years of mistreatment to Ralph) and then Sergeant Calhoun, when they went by to pick her up, (Ralph had to deal with the icky mushyness the newlyweds gave off) they headed towards the sweet, lovable game of Sugar Rush.

Ralph was the first (and always would be the first) to recieve a hung from the President of Sugar Rush, Vanellope Von Sweets. She demanded to know about his day, asking for all the details even as she gave Felix a hug and Calhoun a handshake. Ralph was embarrassed- as usually- of her attention, yet he wasn't disliking it. It was nice to have someone want to know how his day went. Which was the exact same reason he questioned her, as they made their way to her rather elegant and castle-like parliament building.

"Well, it was the usual. Beat everyone, won the golden cup, ya know? Glitched here-" She slides over, her body glitching, transporting her a few feet to the left of Ralph, "And then I glitched over there-" She glitches just behind Ralph, "And then I glitched back," She appears right beside Ralph once again, "Everyone loves it. I've gotten it down to having the gamers press certain buttons to make me do it- but I change the buttons they have to press everytime so they all come back to figure out what does what." She grins cheekily at Ralph, "A little teaser in the game, ya know? Get's them excited." She laughs, as they near the large doors leading to her castle. The oreo warriors surrond the door, two of them opening it silently as they walk past.

"Hmm, you know, sugarcake, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea." Sergeant Calhoun spectulates. Vanellope blanches at the 'endearing' term the sergant used on her. Only _she_ could make an endearment sound like an insult- which, knowing the Sergeant as they did, she probably meant it that way, "Perhaps I'll have some 'secret' moves for those snot-faced brats to figure out."

Ralph raises a brow, "But all you have for those _snot-faced brats_ to do is pull a trigger. How exactly could you get a secret move for that? At least Vanellope has some buttons to press in sequence. I highly doubt you could do _anything_ like a secret move for them to do."

Sergeant Calhoun gives Ralph a severe frown, "_I'll_ figure something out, _Wreck-it, _and when I do, you'll be eating those words- especially as I shove them down your throat."

Ralph snorts rolling his eyes dramatically, "Yah, okay."

"Okay you babies, enough babbling back there. We're here for tea, not arguments." Vanellope says, as she leads them into the main throne room.

"Yes, no more arguing please. We didn't come here for a fight." Felix agrees, nodding his head vigirously. Sergeant Calhoun gives a long, drawn-out sigh.

"Whatever."

Ralph merely shrugs, eliciting another glare from the Sergeant. The four of them stand silently, a little awkwardly, in the giant throne room together. None of them had seen each other for a while, a little busy as the arcade gained more and more reputation- _Prime time, _Mr. Litwack usually said, _always comes a little late. _All of them continue staring at the empty room.

"_Sour Bill!_" Vanellope cries out suddenly. Within seconds, a small green ball comes running in. Sour Bill huffs.

"Yes, President?" He wheezes.

Vanellope's eyebrows crinkle, "Do you know- Wait, did you just run all the way here? Where we you- on the other side of the building?" Sour Bill nods, "Oh, well you didn't have to come rushing over then. I could have waited." Sour Bill just wheezes out a little more, "You know, you are old Sour Bill. You had been working with my father for a long time before the whole Turbo fisco and now me. Why don't you just- I dunno- retire?"

Sour Bill shakes his head, "No no. I'm fine, I'm fine."

Vanellope stares hard at him, before shrugging, "Alright. But do you know where the tea and snacks went? I thought they were here!" Vanellope gestures to the large room- it devoid of anything snack or tea-like. Sour Bill looks incredulous.

"No, they are not here..." He mumbles, before he dashes off again.

Ralph looks around the empty room again, it being empty giving him a weird feeling. _What's wrong with this picture...? _Suddenly, it hits him- "Vanellope, where are all the other racers? I usually find them standing around here everytime I visit you."

Vanellope gives a shrug, "I told them to get out while just the four of us are together. They are cool and all, but they do tend to get on my nerves- more often than not." She grimaces, and Ralph tries to hold in his laugh.

"Oh, I see." He responds, resuming to his scouting of the room. Now that he had the time to just gape at the room- he hadn't done it all the other times he had been here, considereing Vanellope was usually taking up much of his attention- as were the other Sugar Rush occupants. Out of the corner of his eye, Ralph notices a rather fair sized painting on the far side of the room. He saunters over to it, staring at the person in the frame. The man in the picture was elderly looking- wise and kind. His hair was snow white, his eyes a deep green. He could feel the strong, imperical presence of the man, even in the picture of his likeness.

"Is this your father?" Ralph calls out to Vanellope. She glitches over, standing beside him, looking up at the painting.

She sighs, "Yeah. It is."

"Oh. He seems like he would be a good father."

She sighs again, contently, "Yeah, he _was_ a good father. Well, that I can remember of him. A lot of my memory is fuzzy. No doubt from what Turbo did to my memory, the snotbrain. But I can continuely picture his smile. He always seemed to have one on."

"Well, at least the memories you do know are happy ones." Ralph says, nodding his head. Vanellope smiles.

"Yah. It is good. However, it ticks me off that Turbo forced me to forget them for that long." She frowns darkly, crossing her arms as she stares up at the picture of her father.

"Well, you've got them back now and that's all that counts."

"Yeah," Vanellope hums, "Hey, Ralphie- what about you? How was your dad?"

Ralph blinks rapidly, "_My - my Father?_" He gulps, "Ah- uh, well, my-my memories are really boring- wouldn't you rather hear about Calhoun's father instead?" He glances towards the married couple, just a few feet away from them. Calhoun raises her head at the mention of her name.

"My father?" Calhoun asks, walking towards the two of them, Felix in tow behind her. She crosses her arms, thinking, "Well, I guess one could say my father was a hard man."

"Oh?" Ralph says, hoping to divert the questions of fathers away from himself.

"Yeah. He taught me everything I know, though. I knew how to shoot a gun before I knew how to walk. I could kill a cybug in one shot, at any distance my gun could reach, before I could read or write."

"He must have trained you well."

A small smile softens Calhoun's face, "Yeah, he did. The old goat," She sighs, "Still want to shot him more than once in the face, though." Felix gasps, looking astonished. Calhoun raises a brow in his direction.

"Shot your father in the face!" He exclaims, "Whyever would you want to do that!?"

"Because the nasty old cudger deserves it. Can't do it though, he's already gone." Her mouth hardens into a thin line. An awkward silence descends the group. Vanellope opens her mouth to speak, yet Felix beats her to it.

"My father also isn't around anymore." He whispers quietly, offering his own type of solace to his wife. Calhoun blinks, looking down at her diminuative husband.

"Yeah? And?" She questions gruffly.

Felix blinks, "Oh nothing. Just that we are sharing father stories, so I'd though I'd add my own. He gave me my hammer- he always managed to find strange things wherever he went." Felix shakes his head, "He taught me lots. He was a really great man. I hope to be like him someday."

Ralph could see the smiles, the reflective happiness all three of them hand, recollecting their fathers as they did. He gulps, a dark feeling settling in his stomach. He turns to look back up at the painting again. _All three of them are far beyond me. _He thinks to himself sadly. He wishes for those happy recollections of a father that had cared for him, that had loved him- instead, all he got was bleakness. After all his father didn't ex-

"So, Ralphie, what about your father?" He knew Vanellope would go back to the question- and he also knew that she wouldn't stop waiting until she'd get an answer.

Well, she _would_ get one alright. But it wouldn't be an answer that she'd like to hear, "I don't have one."

Silence descends, and Ralph risks to look back. All three of them were sort of frozen. Vanellope's smile was stuck, Felix looked horrified, and Calhoun looked puzzled. Calhoun is the first to ask for clarification. (_And hurry it up, don't decorate it with useless details.)_

"I don't know what you mean by details. I simply don't have a father."

"What do you mean you _don't_ have a father?!" Vanellope demands, outraged, "How could you _not_ have one!?"

Ralph shrugs, "I just don't have one. I was never programmed to remember a father, or anything before the Nicelanders and the apartment buidling being built overtop my land. If I try to remember past, all I get is black emptiness."

"But- But- I don't understand..." Vanellope stutters, her eyebrows crinkling, "How could you not have a father?" Her voice is soft.

Ralph rubs his neck, looking away from all their faces, "Hey, it's fine. I've lived my whole life without a father, I can continue to do it. It's not like I really need one anyway."

"Do you remember your mother?"

Ralph pauses, "No. I don't have a mother either." His voice shakes. He could see the sadness- pity?!- in their eyes. Ralph could understand- earlier he had seen what he was missing.

He was missing pleasant memories, and with the life he had had, those pleasant memories would have meant the world to him.

Felix steps up, putting his arm on Ralph's shoudlers, "Well, Ralph, if its any consolation, I don't remember my mother. I think its because we're old games. Progamming intricate backstories and memories would have taken a lot longer back then."

Ralph nods, "Yeah, I get it. Don't worry guys, it's alright. I'm fine with it."

Vanellope suddenly jumps up, giving Ralph a hug, "Hey, Ralphie! Of course it's fine!" She straigthens to look him in the eye. Her cheeky grin was in place, "After all, who needs parents when you have the greatest friends in the world?! You'll be creating the future, not remembering the past. You'll have all our adventures to look back on- not crummy, fuzzy memories of long-times-ago. And these, you know, will be better than ANYTHING! I can garuentee it!"

Ralph laughs, "You know, Vanellope, you are absolutely right. I don't need parents when I have the greatest friends right here." He smiles lopsidely at them all. Felix grins back. Calhoun rolls her eyes, but the lift to her mouth betrays her indifference.

"President Vanellope?" Sour Bill calls out, interrupting the four of them. Vanellope hops off of Ralph, turning to face the small candy.

"Yeah?"

"I found your tea and snacks."

"Really?! Where were they?!"

"Taffyta and Rancis hide them. They were a little upset you kicked them out. When you went out to get the four guests, they took the snacks and drinks and ran off with them."

Vanellope frowns, "I hadn't thought they would get upset."

"Well, they are your most loyal followers, President Vanellope." Vanellope blanches.

"I know." She says sourly, her face twisting unpleasantly. All three behind her laugh.

"Well, you know _President Vanellope_," Ralph smiles, "My future can always have more than just us in it. The more the merrier, many say."

Vanellope smiles, shaking her head, "Yes, it certainly can Ralphie. Sour Bill! Tell everyone in the game that President Vanellope is throwing a party up at the castle- _ahem_, parliament building! In fact, we should tell the whole Game Central Station to come!"

"If you think that wise, President Vanellope." Sour Bill grumbles, the tone of his voice thinking it obviously was not wise.

"Of course I do! A party is what everyone _wants!_" Vanellope exclaims, waving her hand dismissively.

Felix looks at Ralph, "Should I go over to our game, Ralph, and invite Q*bert and the Nicelanders?"

"No! Not the Nicelanders!" Vanellope exclaims, crossing her arms pointedly. Felix scrunches his nose.

"Why not?"

"Because, Ralph can have a good future with many people in it- but they just take up too much room. Can't have Ralph's future blocked by a bunch of short, square, sour-puss people."

**_~!~!~!~!_**

**_Well, that is the end because I am tired and I think I like that ending._**

**_Please be kind to me! Writing at like 2 in the morning. Not very good, but rather productive. Hopefully. This is just a random thought, so it's probably not the best anyway._**

**_Well, read and review! ^^_**

**_- Calm-Waters_**


End file.
